Car-door.



F. MATHEWS.

GAR DOOR.

APPLICATION FILED MAR. 24, 1913.

1, 1 1 3,454. Patented 001. 13, 1914.

l V/TAESSES: R m

' I/ /wd W ATTORNEKS.

--.UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

FRED MATHEWS, or CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNQIR. 'ro CLINTON o. MURPHY or A CHICAGO, inmnois.

can-noon.

Specification 01 Letters Patent. Application filed March 24, 1913. Serial No. 756,425.

Patented Oct. 13. 191 4.

To all whom it may concern:

en of the United States, residin'g at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented certainnew' and useful Improvements in Car-Doors, of which the following is a s ecification. v v

My invention relates to railway car doors of the slidingtype, such as are used particularly for closing the door openings in the sides of box cars; and the invention has for its principal object to provide certain devices and combinations of devices for supporting the door on the outside of the car which will be cheaper to manufacture than the devices heretofore used for this purpose, which will allow the door to be moved more easily back and forth" across the door opening, which will give a maximum degree of strength and durability, and which will be so arranged that the freedom of movement of the door will not be materially affected by the sagging or distortion of the car that so "frequently occurs after the car has been in service for some time.

The invention has for further objects the other new and improved constructions, arrangements and devices to be hereinafter described and claimed. I

The invention is illustrated, in a preferred embodiment, in'the accompanying drawings,

wherein Figure 1 is a fragmentary side elevation of a box car showing the door and devices for supporting the same provided by my invention. Fig. 2 is a vertical sectional view taken on line 2-1-2 of Fig. 1.

Like characters of reference designate like parts in the-several figures of the drawings.

- Referring to the drawings, A designates the side wall of the car which is formed with the usual door opening. B designates the door which may be of any preferred construction.

C designates one of the side plates of the car, and D a wooden nailing strip which is supportedonthe angular metal side sill E.

The construction of the car forms no part of my invention, the .door which i have devised being suitable for cars of various constructions,

means.

the door is furnished with a Z-bar I, which the car below the door, the upper edge of-the door being entirely without connection to the I car and merely retained by suitable retaining The supporting devices below the door are preferably provided with members extending around the lower edge of the door which hold the same from lateraldisplacemcnt.

It willbe understood that devices of various sorts might be employed for supporting the door and retaining it in proper position in the manner above indicated. Preferably I provide below the door several brackets F having rollers G on which the lower edge of the door rests, and formed with lips H which stand in front of the lower edge of the door.

In the particular construction shown for the purpose of illustrating my invention in its preferred embodiment, the lower edge of bears upon the rollers G, the lips H of the brackets standing in front of the lower flange of the Z-bar I. This arrangement gives durability and also compactness.

Secured to the body of the car above the door opening is a retaining strip M preferablyin the form of a Z-bar, the lower flange m of which extends in front of the upper edge of the door. The latter is preferablyprovided with the angular wear plate N. The upper edge of the door, it will be seen, is not in any way attached to the car. It is simply retained by the Z-bar M. I

In order to provide an additional element of safety and to guard particularly against the possibility of the brackets at the lower edge of the door becoming broken or displaced, the upper edge of the door is furnished with books 0 which extend over the horizontal flange of the Z-bar M. These devices are 'not intended to carry the load of thedoor. They normally stand out of contact with the top of the Z-bar and in this respect become operative only in' case of the failure of the supporting brackets below the door. However, these devices also serve the purpose of preventing the door, when moved, from rubbing against the door frame.

While I have described my invention in certain. preferred embodiments, it will be understood that modifications might be made without departure from the invention. Therefore I do not wish to limit the invention to the particular construction shown and described except so far as these constructions are specifically made limitations in the claim herein.-

I claim:

The combination with a railway car having a door openin and a door movable across said opening, 0% separate brackets arranged at spaced intervals on the car below said door opening provided with rollers upon which the door is movably sustained,.

and a retaining and weather-proofing strip secured to the car above the door opening which holds the upper edge of the door in proper position and guides it when the door is moved without sustaining any of the other and normally out of contact with each other so as to provide means for slidably mounting the door which comes into operation in the event the normal sustaining devices below the lower edge of the door become ineffective for sustaining the same.

FRED MATHEWS.

Witnesses LUCY A. FALKENBERG,

H. M. GILLESIIE. 

